Nicole Mary Kidman,
AC (born 20 June 1967) is an American-born Australian actress, fashion model, singer and
humanitarian. In 2006, Kidman was made a
Companion of the Order of Australia, Australia's highest civilian honour.
[Stafford, Annabel: , The Age, 14 April 2007.] In 2006, she was also the highest-paid actress in the motion picture industry.
Kidman's breakthrough was in the 1989 thriller
Dead Calm. Her performances in films such as
Days Of Thunder (1990),
To Die For (1995) and
Moulin Rouge! (2001) won her critical acclaim, and her performance in
The Hours (2002) was acknowledged with several notable film awards including the
Academy Award for Best Actress, a
BAFTA Award and a
Golden Globe Award. In 2003, Kidman received her star on the
Walk of Fame in
Hollywood, California.
She is also known for her marriage to
Tom Cruise and her current marriage to country musician
Keith Urban.
As a result of being born to Australian parents in Hawaii, Kidman has
dual citizenship of Australia and the United States.
Early life
Kidman was born in
Honolulu, Hawaii. Her father, Dr Antony David Kidman, is a
biochemist,
clinical psychologist and author, with an office in
Lane Cove, Sydney, Australia.
Her mother, Janelle Ann (
née Glenny), is a
nursing instructor who edits her husband's books and was a member of the
Women's Electoral Lobby. At the time of Kidman's birth, her father was a visiting fellow at the
National Institute of Mental Health of the United States. The family returned to Australia when Kidman was four and her parents now live on
Sydney's North Shore. Kidman has a younger sister,
Antonia Kidman, a journalist. She has known actress
Naomi Watts since they were in their teens and the two remain best friends today.
Kidman attended Lane Cove Public School and
North Sydney Girls' High School. She studied at the
Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne, and at the Phillip Street Theatre in Sydney, with Naomi Watts. This was followed by attending the
Australian Theatre for Young People.
Career
Early career in Australia (1983–89)
Kidman's first appearance in film came in 1983 at 15, in the
Pat Wilson music video for the song "Bop Girl". By the end of the year she had a supporting role in the
television series Five Mile Creek and four film roles, including
BMX Bandits and
Bush Christmas. During the 1980s, she appeared in several Australian productions, including the
soap opera A Country Practice, the mini-series
Vietnam (1986),
Emerald City (1988), and
Bangkok Hilton (1989).
Breakthrough (1989–95)
In 1989, Kidman starred in
Dead Calm as Rae Ingram, the wife of naval officer John Ingram (
Sam Neill), held captive on a Pacific yacht trip by the psychotic Hughie Warriner (
Billy Zane). The thriller garnered strong reviews;
Variety commented: "Throughout the film, Kidman is excellent. She gives the character of Rae real tenacity and energy." Meanwhile, critic
Roger Ebert noted the excellent chemistry between the leads, stating, "...Kidman and Zane do generate real, palpable hatred in their scenes together." In 1990, she appeared opposite
Tom Cruise in
Days of Thunder, and again in
Ron Howard's
Far and Away (1992). In 1995, Kidman featured in the
ensemble cast of
Batman Forever.
International success (1995–present)
Kidman's second film in 1995,
To Die For, was a satirical comedy that earned her critical praise. For her portrayal of the murderous newscaster Suzanne Stone Maretto, she won a
Golden Globe Award and five other best actress awards. In 1998, she appeared in the film
Practical Magic alongside Sandra Bullock, and starred in the stage play
The Blue Room, which opened in London. In 1999 Kidman and Cruise portrayed a married couple in
Eyes Wide Shut, the final film of
Stanley Kubrick. The film opened to generally positive reviews but was subject to censorship controversies due to the explicit nature of its sex scenes.
In 2002 Kidman received an
Academy Award nomination for her performance in the 2001 musical film
Moulin Rouge!, in which she played the
courtesan Satine opposite
Ewan McGregor. Consequently, Kidman received her second
Golden Globe Award for
Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. The same year she also had a well-received starring role in the horror film
The Others. While in Australia filming
Moulin Rouge!, Kidman injured her ribs; as a result,
Jodie Foster replaced her as leading actress in the film
Panic Room. In that film, Kidman's voice appears on the phone as the mistress of the husband of the lead character.
The following year, Kidman won critical praise for her portrayal of
Virginia Woolfin
The Hours, in which the prosthetics applied to her made her almost unrecognisable. She won the
Academy Award for Best Actress for this role, along with a
Golden Globe Award, a
BAFTA, and numerous critics awards. Kidman became the first Australian actress to win an Academy Award. During her Academy Award acceptance speech, Kidman made a teary statement about the importance of art, even during times of war: "Why do you come to the Academy Awards when the world is in such turmoil? Because art is important. And because you believe in what you do and you want to honour that, and it is a tradition that needs to be upheld."
In the same year, Kidman starred in three very different films. The first film,
Dogville, by Danish director
Lars von Trier, was an
experimental film set on a bare
soundstage. In the second film, she co-starred with
Anthony Hopkins in the film adaptation of
Philip Roth's novel
The Human Stain. The third film,
Cold Mountain, a love story of two
Southerners separated by the
Civil War, garnered her a Golden Globe Award nomination.
Kidman's 2004 film
Birth was nominated for the
Golden Lion Award at the
Venice Film Festival, and Kidman was nominated for another Golden Globe Award.
Kidman's two movies in 2005 were
The Interpreter and
Bewitched.
The Interpreter, directed by
Sydney Pollack, received mixed reviews, while
Bewitched, co-starring
Will Ferrell and based on the
1960s TV sitcom of the same name, was generally panned by critics. Neither film fared well in the United States, their box office sales falling well short of the production costs, but both films fared well internationally.
In conjunction with her success in the film industry, Kidman became the face of the
Chanel No. 5 perfume brand. She starred in a campaign of television and print ads with
Rodrigo Santoro, directed by
Moulin Rouge! director
Baz Luhrmann to promote the fragrance during the holiday season in 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2008. The three-minute commercial produced for Chanel No. 5 perfume made Kidman the record holder for the most money paid per minute to an actor after she reportedly earned
US$12million for the 3 minute advert. During this time, Kidman was also listed as the 45th Most Powerful Celebrity on the 2005
Forbes Celebrity 100 List. She made a reported US$14.5 million in 2004-2005. On
People magazine's list of 2005's highest paid actresses, Kidman was second behind
Julia Roberts with a US$16 million to US$17 million per-film price tag. She has since passed Roberts as the highest paid actress.
Kidman appeared in the
Diane Arbus bio-pic
Fur. She also lent her voice to the animated film
Happy Feet, which quickly garnered critical and commercial success; the film grossed over US$384 million dollars worldwide. In 2007, she starred in the science fiction movie
The Invasion directed by
Oliver Hirschbiegel where it was reported that she received $26 million dollars for her performance; although it was a critical and commercial failure Kidman said that she has no control over the success of her films. She also played opposite
Jennifer Jason Leigh and
Jack Black in
Noah Baumbach's comedy-drama
Margot at the Wedding. She also starred in
the film adaptation of the first part of the planned
His Dark Materials trilogy of films, playing the villainous
Marisa Coulter. However,
The Golden Compasss failure to meet expectations at the North American box office has reduced the likelihood of a sequel.
On 25 June 2007, Nintendo announced that Kidman would be the new face of Nintendo's advertising campaign for the Nintendo DS game More Brain Training in its European market.
In 2008, she starred Baz Luhrmann's Australian period film titled Australia, which is set in the remote Northern Territory during the Japanese attack on Darwin during World War II. Kidman played opposite Hugh Jackman as an English woman feeling overwhelmed by the continent. The film was a box office success worldwide.
Kidman was originally set to star in The Reader, a post-war Germany drama, but due to her pregnancy she had to back out of the film. Shortly after the news of Kidman's departure, it was announced that Kate Winslet would take over the role. Winslet went on to win the Oscar for Best Actress for the role - at the ceremony, Kidman was one of the five previous winners who presented her with the award.
On 10 November 2008, TV Guide reported that Kidman will star in the film adaptation of The Danish Girl alongside Charlize Theron. Kidman will play Elinar Wegener, the world's first post-op transsexual.Singing
Not a singer before Moulin Rouge!, Kidman had well-received vocal performances in the film. Her collaboration with Ewan McGregor on "Come What May" peaked at #27 in the UK Singles Chart. Later she collaborated with Robbie Williams on "Somethin' Stupid", a cover of Williams' swing covers album Swing When You're Winning. It peaked at #8 in the Australian ARIAnet Singles Chart, and at 1 for three weeks in the UK. It was UK Christmas #1 for 2001.
In 2006, she voiced the animated movie Happy Feet, along with vocals for Norma Jean's 'heartsong', a slightly altered version of "Kiss" by Prince. Kidman is to sing in Rob Marshall's next movie, musical Nine, along with Daniel Day-Lewis, Penélope Cruz, Judi Dench, Sophia Loren and Marion Cotillard.Personal life
Kidman has been married twice. She became romantically involved with actor Tom Cruise on the set of their 1990 movie, Days of Thunder. Kidman and Cruise were married on Christmas Eve 1990 in Telluride, Colorado. The couple adopted a daughter, Isabella Jane (born 1992), and a son, Connor Anthony (born 1995). They separated just after their 10th wedding anniversary. She was three months pregnant and had a miscarriage. Cruise filed for divorce in February 2001. The marriage was dissolved in 2001, Cruise citing irreconcilable differences.[. ABC News. 8 May 2006. Retrieved 10 March 2007.] The reasons for dissolution have never been made public. In Marie Claire, Kidman said she had an ectopic pregnancy early in their marriage. In the June 2006 Ladies' Home Journal, she said she still loved Cruise: "He was huge; still is. To me, he was just Tom, but to everybody else, he is huge. But he was lovely to me. And I loved him. I still love him." In addition, she has expressed shock about their divorce.[. ABC News. 8 May 2006. Retrieved 10 March 2007.]
Nicole Kidman in August 2006
Kidman met her second husband, country singer Keith Urban at G'Day LA, an event honouring Australians in January 2005. They married on 25 June 2006, at Cardinal Cerretti Memorial Chapel in the grounds of St Patrick's Estate, Manly in Sydney. They maintain homes in Sydney, Sutton Forest, Los Angeles and Nashville, Tennessee. In March 2008, they bought mansions in Los Angeles and Nashville within days.
After speculation by the press, it was confirmed on 8 January 2008 that Kidman was three months pregnant. The couple had their first child, Sunday Rose Kidman Urban, on 7 July 2008, in Nashville, Tennessee.
Kidman's father said the daughter's middle name was after Urban's late grandmother, Rose.
Kidman mentioned in an interview with Ellen Degeneres in 2005 that she is banned from doing one of her favourite hobbies - sky diving - whilst shooting a movie.
In January 2005, Kidman won interim restraining orders against two Sydney paparazzi who were stalking her.
In the beginning of 2009, Kidman appeared in a series of special edition postage stamps featuring some of Australia's great actors. She, Geoffrey Rush, Russell Crowe, and Cate Blanchett each appear twice in the series: once as themselves and once as their Academy Award-winning character.Religious and political views
Kidman is a practising Roman Catholic.
Kidman's name was in an advertisement in the Los Angeles Times (17 August 2006) that condemned Hamas and Hezbollah and supported Israel in the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict. Kidman has donated to U.S. Democratic party candidates and endorsed John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election.Charitable work
Kidman has been a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF Australia since 1994. She has raised money for and drawn attention to the disadvantaged children around the world. In 2004, she was honored as a "Citizen of the World" by the United Nations.
On Australia Day 2006, Kidman received Australia's highest civilian honor when she was made a Companion of the Order of Australia. She was also nominated goodwill ambassador for UNIFEM.
Kidman joined the 'Little Tee Campaign' for breast cancer care to design T-shirts or vests to raise money for breast cancer. Kidman's mother had breast cancer in 1984.Filmography
Kidman's movies gross total is more than US$2 billion, with 17 movies making more than $100 million.Awards
In 2003, Kidman received a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In addition to her 2003 Academy Award for Best Actress, Kidman has received Best Actress awards from the following critics' groups or award-granting organisations: the Hollywood Foreign Press (Golden Globes), the Australian Film Institute, Blockbuster Entertainment Awards, Empire Awards, Golden Satellite Awards, Hollywood Film Festival, London Critics Circle, Russian Guild of Film Critics, and the Southeastern Film Critics Association. In 2003, Kidman was given the American Cinematheque Award. She also received recognition from the National Association of Theatre Owners at the ShoWest Convention in 1992 as the Female Star of Tomorrow and in 2002 for a Distinguished Decade of Achievement in Film.Government honours
In 2006, Kidman was made a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC), Australia's highest civilian honour, for "service to the performing arts as an acclaimed motion picture performer, to health care through contributions to improve medical treatment for women and children and advocacy for cancer research, to youth as a principal supporter of young performing artists, and to humanitarian causes in Australia and internationally." However, due to film commitments and her wedding to Urban, it was 13 April 2007 that she was presented with the honour., presented by Governor-General of Australia, Major General Michael Jeffery in a ceremony at Government House, Canberra.Discography
